Nostalgia Interviews With Chris Deacy

My guest this week is Jan Moriarty, Student Success Manager at the University of Kent, a wonderful project designed to support students to achieve better degrees. We learn how Jan became involved in the project and how her initial concern that it was not going to be possible to solve EDI issues in two years were balanced by the consideration that morally it is something that has to be done. It reveals who is flourishing and who is not, e.g. a black student is more likely to come out with a worse degree than their white peers.  It’s about holding a mirror up to the institution, and changing our behaviours and changing mindsets. Crucial to Jan’s work is the extent to which we have to take people with us and that those with white privilege have to use their white privilege as a force for change. We learn that Jan did a joint honours degree in Sociology and Dance at Roehampton. Her father was a Trades Union rep whereas her mother had quite different politics. Jan reflects on how education when she was gr